Does steroid injection to reduce pain is bad for pbc ? I am about to do one on Tuesday

[Alousha]

[Val02]

I think steroid injections for pain is fine, (or so I was told). Obviously everyone is cautious when it comes to steroids but give it a try and see how much benefit you get. For me they were great to start with and then had diminishing returns so I stopped having them in the end.

Good luck - I hope it helps.

[Gioielli]

I had a steroid injection on my wrist just over a year ago and the results were startling. Wrist swelling went immediately and although still painful at times nothing like it was before. No side effects at all. Hope all goes well for you. xxx

[Hidden]

I can't see how an injection into a painful area could be that damaging. Steroid injections target the site of the pain as an inflammatory so don't pass through the system. As I understand it the drug starts being broken down at the muscle site.

It is probably a better option than having to actually take the steroid in tablet form as with these you tend to have to start high dose and then wean yourself off them and the adrenal glands do stop working to produce natural adrenaline whilst on steroids. An injection at the time is a one off and not every day for a duratiojn of several days.

[littlemo in reply to Hidden]

Hi Peridot hope you dont mind my asking but you have stated some info there re the adrenal glands are you a medical professional?

[Hidden in reply to littlemo]

Hello littlemo.

No I am not a medical professional.

I am one of these nosy people who occasionally needs to find out certain things. Started back in the early 1990s when my first late husband took sick (he was asthmatic) and due to asthma starting to deteriorate he was given prednisolone (steroid) tablets in courses.

I found it a bit strange how he was like he was bionic on these steroids. He would be so energetic, good appetite, etc unlike before he ever got back with asthma and it didn't seem normal to me. Was due to the tablets being started in high dose and then within a fortnight he was weaned off them.

He started to look worse within a week of coming off steroids and then would be violently sick for days on end, picking up when he was put back on the steroids. I was uncertain so did some digging and found out that if you take steroids then your adrenal glands cease to make your own natural adrenaline and then after being weaned off them your adrenal glands kick back in again. I found out that if adrenal glands failed to work then it was known as Addisons Disease.

My husband exhibited symptons of this and when I mentioned to the hospital doctor as he was under the Chest Clinic, he asked me how I knew about Addisons Disease. No-one seemed to take any notice of me. My husband did deteriorate badly and he died due to his heart not being able to cope. At post-mortem it was said he had Addisons Disease so I was really angry for quite some time following as he should have been given a small amount of steroid daily due to this disease.

Apparently steroids aren't all bad, back in the early 90s they were given to asthmatics and patients with arthritis as they are anti-inflammatory. It was a case I am certain due to my husband taking them it did cause his adrenals to shut down completely. I did think the medical profession were negligent in not listening to the patient's wife as I did say on several occasions that it was me who lived with my husband, they (doctors) only saw my husband briefly in surgery and could assess how he was there and then.

This is one reason why I do not trust doctors and do try to find out certain things so I can ask questions. I do find most doctors do not like it, they don't seem to like a patient wanting to find out things or know certain things but now with myself having PBC I do think that it might be of more benefit to me to try to understand certain things. I have to say I'm not someone who will put every minor thing now down to PBC. I think I've gained a better understanding of it since 2010 but unfortunately I can't figure our how to perhaps rid myself of the damn itch or maybe try to halt the progress (due to not being happy taking urso but I obviously do continue to take them, just wish I could get by without them).

But some things never change, I find I am being treated exactly in the same way by the medical profession as my late husband was in the early 1990s.

[littlemo in reply to Hidden]

Hi Peridot thanks for reply I dont blame you for being angry hearing all that about your late husband (may he R.I.P.). I am very like you in that I do like to look into things specially when it comes to my own or my families health and would never hesitate in asking questions of the medics. I know from experience that steroids do work well in short blasts but like any long term or repetitive drug they can have nasty side effects. Any responsible dr should have prescribe them with due care and I feel patients on any long term or repetitively prescribed drugs should have their bloods checked regularly for any side effects. In fact I brought this particular subject up with my GP once when unfortunately I had to make a written complaint about my care (or rather lack of) and said that I felt that patients should have their bloods monitored when taken off long term drugs same way they should when on long term drugs. Basically the head of the practice said " This is not the forum to discuss that" in other words he didnt want to be told what to do and sadly I feel bottom line is it would cost too much money. I will add in here though I have also had some very good care from the medical professionals but on the whole am sorry to say I do question everything and do make sure they listen to me " the patient". Hope you are keeping well and was speaking to the PBC Foundation recently and they said there is some research being currently done into a drug to tackle the horrible itch so hang in there there is hope for us "scratchies"! ;

[teresacg in reply to Hidden]

Please contact me about the itching

my email

[e-mail]

[Hidden]

Thanks for your reply littlemo.

For some reason the itch has sort of tapered off to a mild level in the last few days but not sure if to do with the fact I am worried about my sister who had another brain surgery op 2 days ago (hopefully her husband will see more improvement today) or if it is due to the colder weather and I'm not so hot all the time (my home doesn't have central heating and doubt we could afford to pay for it now if we had with the despicably high energy prices here in England now).

I think I would be very hard pushed to add another drug to the urso in future unless I reached a desperate state with the itch. I think it's due to a couple of factors really, the first being would it start to rock pretty good LFT results and also would I have to go through all the hassle with the prescription amount (if established the 'new tablets' were doing seemingly well).

Yesterday I was reading some article in the national newspaper about possible scenarios that have emerged from the Government to reap money into the NHS to keep it going. One was putting the prescription charge up to £10 here in England and also charging £10 each time you went on an appt at the GP surgery. Might only be suggestions at the moment but I do think standards of care would drop greatly if this idea was put into motion. We are supposed to be paying into the NHS via National Insurance contributions so would be the payers once again tipping up. The first thing that came into my head was that if in event of something like this, I'd ask for referral back to the hospital doctor and just go there instead. (I did get the option back in 2011 when still under the hospital to go at intervals for the bloods there but given the distance and the fact I wanted a discharge I have them at the GP.)

I've already had 2 appointments to the GP in the last 12 months which I deemed wasted appts but it was the case I didn't seem to get anywhere by ringing surgery nor when I spoke to the GP over the telephone.